PS Vita’s Poor Sales: Should Sony Be Worried Already?

Well, alright, maybe not dead, but its sales following a successful – if not mind-blowing – opening week have dropped a huge 78 per cent. 325,000 Vitas were sold in the first week the handheld went on sale, with this number dropping to 72,000 in its second week on sale.

That’s a lot lower than the 3DS.

That’s lower than the PSP.

It might be a bit early to call it (just look at Nintendo’s ‘failure’ for a good example of what I mean), but is it brown trousers time for Sony already? Of course not.

It’s a situation that will see the company paying close attention to what the hell is going on. It’s a situation that might see a few initiatives here and there – a free game for buying early, some mad promo offers, more advertising, some things like that – but Sony isn’t the kind of company to crap its pants and react hastily.

But that well-established Sony arrogance – look how slowly the company reacted to the PS3’s laborious uptake with consumers, especially in the US – could prove to be quite the hubristic move on the company’s part.

But it looks like the next few months, where Vita tries to establish itself in its homeland while simultaneously attempting to lure in purchasers across the rest of the world, will be something to keep a close eye on.

Will we see reactionary price cuts? An apologetic ‘loyalty’ program for those who bought at full price? Sales picking up afterwards? Basically I’m just asking if Sony will follow the 3DS model for how to save Vita from an initially underwhelming showing. They might have to, you see.

If having a fat guy holding the box with a smirk is Sony’s idea of a model Vita user, it is doomed.
The 3DS has still-not-bad-looking moderately famous middle-aged women and even Robin Williams with his Legend of Zelda inspired daughter as it’s models. The Vita gets a chubby fuzzy-chined Asian kid.

Ian Dransfield

They should use Brian Blessed. It would sell 400 billion units if they did.

Sid

who to blame? smartphones. their cheap apps and the ability to call and text makes it much easier to use for casual gamers. so, blame smartphones. Especially IPHONE 4! >:(

In a world filled with smartphones, consoles and everything in between a new product has to find a position in the market to fill. The 3DS brought a completely new, all but unheard of, aspect to the handheld and even the techno world. But the PSVita brings nothing completely new, it may pack a lot into it’s multi-touch casing but with the gadget market demanding innovation we must wonder, who is the PSVita aiming for? Is it people who already own a PlayStation? Or is it for people who want to get into gaming? What ever the answer is is that market big enough? We won’t know until the PSVita has launched in all of it’s major selling locations.

Stevey1976

I’ve had my doubts about this since the launch, but I really think it’ a case of DOA – Dead on arrival.